Customer Reviews

Road Warrior: How to Keep Your Faith, Relationships, and Integrity When Away from Home (The Every Man Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The picture of success: a fast-paced worldwide traveler. The motivation: to make as much money as possible for the business and family. The visible proof: exquisite possessions, exotic vacations, and a pension-padded worry-free retirement.

But behind the mask of success may be a painful reality: bankrupt relationships with family, friends, self, and God. "In order to cope, spouses learn to become independent of each other. They become the `married divorced' as their relationship gradually moves more toward a domestic partnership," says author Sam Gallucci.

Gallucci tells his very personal story in the book, Road Warriors. His vulnerable account reveals his disastrous personal failure at the height of success as a Christian businessman. After years of gradual compromise, he woke to find himself deep in sexual sin.

"I had two lives, one on the road and one at home. And each year the distance between them grew farther apart . . . The lessons are still raw in my mind--some are still being sorted out today. How did I ever get to the place where I chose to sin . . . the answer to that question is why (we) have collaborated on this book."

Using the book in their own lives, the two authors give proven and practical ideas to the traveler on:
1) How to develop his (or her) relationship with God at home in order to utilize God's strength on the road
2) How to maintain a thriving relationship with his wife and children at home and long-distance
3) How to maximize accountability relationships while on the road
4) How to set filters to protect one's heart and behavior, and recognize the emotions that could easily lead toward a destructive path

Designed for the busy traveler, the chapters are quick reads. In fact, in just one sitting, the reader can skim the book and get enough from the main points to begin to make positive changes that night. Each chapter opens with "Quick Tips to Grab on the Go", and concludes with thought-provoking questions to use for personal prayer or discussion with an accountability group.

The book is divided into three parts: The Challenge, The Consequences, and the Solution. Many points are repeated in the first eighty pages, the first two sections. The third part--The Solution--is the catalyst for changing one's life.

Road Warriors is a preventive tool for the young traveler, as well as a must-read for the person who is lost on a destructive path. Though written in the context of business travel, the information in this book is as important for military marriages.

With a new measure for success, Gallucci now "attacks each day as a road warrior--someone who fights for what matters most."

Road Warrior provides a solid spiritual framework for managing your life and relationships while on the road. I have been a road warrior since I graduated from college over 14 years ago. I have traveled to just about everywhere on the globe and have logged over 44 weeks on the road during one particular year. The book helps put all of this crazy travel into perspective. Ultimately, the book points out that travel puts families at risk. My takeaway from the book is that long-term frequent business travel is not conducive to nurturing quality relationships with the people that are most important in your life. If you are looking for a game plan for managing your relationships and life while on the road, the book is perfect. If you are looking for a justification for continuing to travel at 100%, the book is not for you.

The writers address a common American problem, dual in nature and related to patterns of business across the continent.

Travel away from home for business produces relational and moral stresses on the traveler. Travel adds stress on relationships and distance between family family members.

Arterburn and Gallucci are concerned about this disconnect at several levels. The toll on families and the traveler is a universal problem in the consuming business atmosphere of the USA.

Business can demand more and more time and energy, all one has to give, squeezing out family and friends, even personal time. They describe out of their own experience and the testimonies of others how life on the road leads to a sense of personal disorientation, in a separation and loss of relationship with spouse and children.

But further, a personal loneliness sets in and the lack of clear context leaves the road warrior without any clear parameters or reference points for activities, schedules or moral accountability.